Star Deepwater Petroleum Limited, a Chevron Company and its partners in the Agbami field, have handed over fully equipped chest clinic to General Hospital, Zambuk, Gombe State.
Senator Gbenga Aluko, Director, Government Affairs in the Policy, Government and Public Affairs (PGPA) department, Abuja, who represented Jeff Ewing, Director, Deepwater and Production Sharing Contracts, presented the keys of the clinic to Dr. Ishaya Kennedy, Gombe State Commissioner for Health to across the country to improve science education.
The partners include Famfa Oil Limited; Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Statoil Nigeria Limited; and Petroleo Brasileiro Nigeria Limited (Petrobras).
Senator Aluko, Director of Corporate Affairs at Chevron, who represented the Director of Deepwater Oil and Gas, Jeffrey Ewing, said the chest clinic, was part of its corporate social responsibility.
He disclosed that the partners have instituted specialized education scholarship programmes in support of health and manpower development in Nigeria through targeted support for medical, nursing, laboratory science and engineering students, adding that as at last year, about 18 students from Gombe have benefitted from the scheme.
His words: “Agbami partners have been adding value to the lives of Nigerians. Several projects, which are mainly chest clinics, hybrid libraries and science laboratories are either on-going or have been completed and handed over to state governments across the country by the partners. The projects constitute an aspect of the strategic intervention plan of the Agbami partners in the education and health sectors,” said Aluko.
Aluko explained: “We have many general hospitals, but the present government in Gombe State has singled out one out of the many in the state as an infectious disease hospital, which treats only people with infectious diseases.
“With this added gift from the Agbami partners, there will in turn be an added responsibility on the state government in the management of infectious disease, especially the chest clinic. What we are going to do now is to train and put in more personnel in the sector
Dr. Kennedy thanked the partners for donating the chest clinic to Gombe State. “I am rarely emotional because of my training as a medical doctor but today I cannot help being carried away by my emotion because the donation of the chest clinic came at the right time; at a time our health facilities and free medical services to our people are being over stretched by influx of displaced people from other states in the north-eastern part of the country to Gombe State in of search treatment for TB and related diseases. You can then understand my emotion as the clinic will assist us in meeting these challenges,” he said.
The commissioner described the chest clinic as first of its kind in north-eastern Nigeria, adding that it will serve people up to the communities in Cameroun that were under the former Sarduana Province of Nigeria.
Representatives of Agbami partners who spoke at the event said the partners have been implementing their Corporate Responsibilities in Nigeria through the execution of projects to improve healthcare delivery across the country. They urged the people of Gombe to make best use of the chest clinic
Mr. Abdulahi who represented NNPC/NAPIMS noted that the wealth of a nation is as good as the health of its citizens. “I am happy to note that the Agbami partners remain committed to improving the quality of health in our society through the provision of infrastructure such as chest clinics to address chest-related ailments,” he said.
Dr. Joshua Obasanya, Coordinator, Nigeria National Tuberculosis programme, who was also at the event, thanked the Agbami partners for their robust health initiative, which he said, has been assisting the Federal Government in achieving its health programme. He said the Ministry of Health will continue to collaborate with the partners and beneficiaries of chest clinics to check the incidence of TB and other chest diseases in the country.
